Reason To Be Pretty Pdf
Lawana Stuckert
Every stranger that I met noticed my pretty earrings. In the line at the grocery store. At the zoo. My earrings and I got so many compliments. I was a pretty baby with pretty earrings and pretty dresses.
I grew into a little girl who loved being pretty. I wanted to be noticed. I wanted to hear compliments on my appearance. My self-worth became enmeshed in those compliments. This was the beginning of a lifetime spent chasing pretty.
Yet, no matter how much I knew, or even what I knew, I was always regarded as being one thing growing up. The face and body I never gave much thought to was all that they had ever given thought to. The words I spoke, the passions I thrived upon were never acknowledged or regarded with importance.
Disregarding the many qualities every woman possesses while only accrediting her external features seems like an issue for the past, an issue put to rest. Women accomplish so much in their own individual ways, in every avenue of life, to which physical appearance has no involvement whatsoever. It seems like everyone knows this. Nevertheless, many do not. The prevalence of objectification still persists.
Before this misogynistic presidency rose to prominence, I thought most men were still not like the ones I knew growing up. And to a degree, I still think this. But with so much emphasis on female beauty and how much credence everyone gives it, the idea of only being viewed for outermost reasons is somehow everywhere.
I attended a college party about a month ago. I walked in with my friend, eager to meet her other friends. Everyone was welcoming, emitting this through their smiles and introductions. One guy, in particular, was very friendly and complimented the band shirt I was wearing. We conversed about music for an hour.
I was paired up with a guy in my speech class and he was nice from our first interaction. We were both cooperative, completing most of our work in class. We met up outside a coffee shop to complete the last piece.
Every woman is empowered in a different way, but she defines this herself. By raising girls to think being beautiful is of great importance, we create insecurities where they need not be. The sexes are unequal for many inconceivable reasons and still remain as such, but the constant objectification we all contribute to reinforces the age-old societal expectations in our everyday lives.
I am taking over a project from an existing programmer who, to be honest, left the project in a massive heap of unmaintainable, unreadable mess (edit/clarification: dozens upon dozens of standalone .php pages that are a soup of php/html/css that all reference one giant 1500 line 'functions.php' file, ack)
Please note that this isn't just for values that might need to be validated/scrubbed, but for EVERYTHING. Data pulled from the database, random variables and arrays that were defined elsewhere, absolutely everything is printf() instead of just echo or print, and i'm trying to figure out why he would use this method as it might help me understand the logic behind some of the things he built.
"The only reason to use printf() in preference over echo or print() is if you will be using the format string place-holders feature with additional arguments (one for each such place-holder). If not, then print() will be faster, and echo even (very slightly) faster since it does not generate a return value."
Well i would have definitely used printf in your example. I often use printf, sprintf, or strtr when outputting html elements with a lot of attributes or complex ones. Its just more readable and its much easier to swap out the values later.
So my pal sent me some photos of cakes pulled from various magazines. She wanted chocolate cake so I emailed some flavor combinations I thought would be interesting. With just a few quick emails we landed on a decision. 4 tiers total with 2 tiers a chocolate/hazelnut combination and the other 2 tiers a chocolate/salted caramel combination. Easy. We were off and running. As for a visual, she wanted CHOCOLATE with emerald green incorporated somehow. Not being particularly good at sugar flowers (this is an art at which I am not very skilled), we settled on chocolate fondant with chocolate piping details and brown/green ribbon trim. I would figure out a way to make it pretty and elegant and she let me. Having this freedom to make decisions on the fly is crucial.
Oh my! They look fantastic and I *wish* I could taste them! I have yet to have a delicious wedding cake, even though many have been beautiful and elaborate. I would take one of your cakes any day, any time! Can you mail them to Texas?
What does it mean to be pretty? Do you really need someone to validate your appearance? Neil LaBute tackles our obsession with physical beauty head-on in a work nominated for multiple Tony and Drama Desk Awards. Our production, directed by the playwright, includes original Broadway cast member Thomas Sadoski, whose acclaimed performance also earned a Tony nomination.
Reasons to Be Pretty (stylized in all-lowercase) is a play by Neil LaBute, his first to be staged on Broadway. The plot centers on four young working class friends and lovers who become increasingly dissatisfied with their dead-end lives and each other. Following The Shape of Things and Fat Pig, it is the final installment of a trilogy that focuses on modern-day obsession with physical appearance.[1]
Produced by MCC Theater and directed by Terry Kinney, the play premiered at the off-Broadway Lucille Lortel Theater on June 2, 2008 and ran through July 5. The cast included Piper Perabo, Pablo Schreiber, Alison Pill, and Thomas Sadoski.[2]
The Broadway production, also directed by Kinney, began previews at the Lyceum Theatre on March 13, 2009, opened on April 2, 2009 and closed on June 14, 2009 after 85 performances. The cast included off-Broadway cast members Thomas Sadoski and Piper Perabo joined by Marin Ireland and Steven Pasquale.[3]
In reviewing the Broadway production for the New York Times, Brantley said, "Even more than when I saw it last June, reasons flows with the compelling naturalness of overheard conversation" and concluded, "It's never easy to say what you mean, or to know what you mean to begin with. With a delicacy that belies its crude vocabulary, reasons to be pretty celebrates the everyday heroism in the struggle to find out."[4]
In 2011 it was produced in London at the Almeida Theatre with a cast including UK actress Billie Piper, Kieran Bew, Sin Brooke and Tom Burke.[5] It opened to critical acclaim on the press night, November 17, 2011, with reviewers claiming it 'was one of the best theatre productions' they had seen in 2011.
The first Canadian production was presented in Montreal, at Thtre La Licorne, from November 19 to December 14, 2012 with Quebec French translation by David Laurin and direction by Frdric Blanchette. The cast of l'obsession de la beaut included Anne-lisabeth Boss, Maude Gigure, David Laurin and Mathieu Quesnel.[6]
LaBute wrote a sequel to the play, Reasons to be Happy, which premiered in June 2013 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in an MCC Theater production. It features the same four characters several years later, and starred Jenna Fischer, Josh Hamilton, Leslie Bibb and Fred Weller.[8]
It seems fitting in an ironic justice way that both the director and one of the actors in New World Arts' production of Neil LaBute's "reasons to be pretty" refer to the main character, Greg, as "average."
"At the beginning, he's a little blas," Gwen Stephan, who plays Steph, says about Greg. "He doesn't show that much emotion. He doesn't get into conflicts when things bother him, but as things progress, he realizes he has to stand up for what he believes in."
"She's definitely kind of feisty," Stephan says about her character. "She does have a hot temper, but she is passionate in general. She likes being good at her job and being a good friend, so when she hears Greg's comment that she's just regular, that sets her off and she quits her job to follow her dream. She's ambitious, but she hasn't been following that until this."
First staged off-Broadway in 2008 and then on Broadway in 2009, "reasons to be pretty" completes LaBute's trilogy about beauty, following 2001's "The Shape of Things" and 2004's "Fat Pig," although the characters differ in all three plays and the plots are not related.
"I think (that) is an interesting way," she says, "because it's sort of about how women have to feel pretty and how they have to feel pretty for men and other women. ... I think it's really about finding a good reason to want to be pretty for yourself and to be pretty for other people."
"The basic plot centers around somebody saying something they didn't believe was a bad thing and having it turn their life upside down," Dietz says. "It is about Greg sort of learning when he's saying the right thing. He definitely grows throughout."
"Carly is a security guard, and she's really beautiful," Stephan says. "She knows that she's beautiful, and in the past, she's been OK with using that to get ahead in life. She got her job because the boss thinks she's beautiful, but she realizes she needs more than that."
"Kent is a bully that people wanted to be friends with in high school so they could be on his good side," Dietz says. "After leaving high school, he's become sort of the popular jock at work. He's (a jerk), but people still seem to like him for some reason."
"From Greg's point of view, (it means) figuring out why someone would want to be pretty instead of just regular," she says. "He internalizes it and figures out he shouldn't be just regular and decides to go to college because he begins to understand that drifting isn't the best way to live."
"I'm in college now, so I'm trying to make myself better and push myself by acting when I don't normally act," the Goshen College student says. "I think it's nice that these people are doing that. They're struggling with it, but it's a good struggle."
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